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CHENNAI, June 13

THE Commissioner of Customs (Sea), Chennai, Mr Joseph Dominic, has urged exporters not to manipulate documents for claiming duty drawbacks which are pending with the department for a long time. "In the past, we have had some unpleasant cases in which the exporters have filed duplicate drawback claims even after they were settled. Some of the claims re-emerged after being rejected by us," he said.

Speaking at a seminar organised by the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), Southern Region, here today, Mr Dominic said some of the drawback claims pending with the Chennai Customs House (CCH) were five to six years old. "Unless we are sure, the claims cannot be settled. We need to take care of all the legal grounds, and cannot do things in a different manner," he added.

"I admit that some of the drawback claims have been pending for a long time. However, they are not due to problems in the department but due to reasons such as missing documents or the exporters have not pursued the claims," Mr Dominic said. "I admit that there could be chances of documents missing in the department. In that case, if the exporters can provide us with copies, we can reconsider providing the claims," he added.

According to Mr Dominic, at the CCH, 90 per cent of the drawback claims filed through electronic data interchange (EDI) have been settled. The rest have problems including documentary filings. On the manual side, about 3,000 claims are pending because the exporters have not responded to the department's queries. "We do not know whether the exporters are aware of this. They need to check their e-mails regularly (in the last few months, the department has been sending the queries through e-mails)," he said.

Mr D.P. Manjunatha, Deputy Commissioner, Customs, said in the fiscal year 1999-2000, while the CCH received 86,813 drawback claims, the department disposed of 86,031, with a drawback amount of Rs 182 crore. Next year, the department received 73,688 claims, but disposed of 77,571 claims amounting to Rs 582 crore. In 2001-02, the department received 45,629 claims, but settled 63,825 cases and the amount was 477 crore, he said. Till June 7, there were 3,418 claims pending with the department, he added.

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